A slew of county business was held at two Commissioner Court meetings over the past two weeks, including land development items and several bids for improvement projects.
In land development at the Tuesday, May 26 meeting (moved from Monday due to Memorial Day) Land Development Director Jason Gardener updated the court.
There were four projects seeking approval to simply combine two lots or plats to make them bigger in order to have more land around their homes.
Those projects were Lots 1038/39 in Mountain Lakes, Lots 588/587R in Mountain Lakes, Lots 457/458 in Mountain Lakes and to divide lot 42 of Indian Hills into two lots – 42A and 42B to gift a 2-acre tract to a family member.
On the Indian Hills project, Gardner asked the court to approve well reports from neighbors as evidence so a new well could potentially be drilled on the 2-acre tract.
“There is plenty of water in the area,” Gardner said. The setback requirement is also adequate, he said.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Chad Townsend spoke against Tres Cruces RV Park being permitted on CR 494.
Townsend said he spent three hours talking to both Gardner and County Engineer Joe England about numerous subdivision violations.
Townsend said he was concerned about public safety especially where the roads surrounding the RV park are concerned.
“These roads are currently no more than driveways,” he said. “There are near misses daily with garbage and delivery trucks. The bottom line is regulations are very specific about engineering guidelines and the inclusion of adjacent roadways in the plans. CR 494 nor 495 have near enough rightof- way to consider approving this permit. What are you going to do when you add school buses or emergency vehicles to already strained roads?”
He said the project would also decrease land values surrounding it.
The court received the following bids for the Precinct 1 Maintenance Barn construction project: Bosque River Builders – $608,330; Pro Mechanical of Texas – (just electrical for the bid) $36,804; Erath plumbing – (just plumbing for the bid) $20,005.56; Pro Mechanical of Texas(HVAC only) $14,829.29; Advanced Ag Services – $618,234;Bosque construction – $742,662.01 and Onyx Solutions – $767,697.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Dee Stephens asked to table the bids being approved so he could review them.
No bids were received for inmate food services for the county.
Approval was given for a Kofile contract regarding having old probate records preserved in the County Clerk’s office. The cost is $102,306 which is being paid for out of the record preservation fund, which is a dedicated fund that can only be used for such items.
Approval was given to Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Buck to purchase a new used water truck at a cost not to exceed $70,000. The current water truck had a rusted-out tank which would stop up the nozzle and water flow and had a burned-out pump.
The truck can also be used to provide water to fires in the area.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Albert Ray was given permission to purchase a dump trailer in order to attach to a pick-up in order to haul brush and trash. The commissioner had the money in his budget, and received five bids from five different places.
“I located a used one in Brownwood I’m going to look at,” he said.
Erath County also gave Palo Pinto County the ability to use a VHF radio frequency.
“If there is any kind of issue, they must stop using it,” Huckabee said.
Approval was given for the sheriff’s office to withdraw from the Memorandum of Agreement Jail Enforcement Model with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Long story short we don’t want to be a holding facility for them. We are not going to hold them until they are deported,” Sheriff Matt Coates said. “They will come within 3 hours and pick them up, and take them to their holding facility.”
The termination of the agreement does not mean the sheriff’s office is not going to work with ICE, he said.
“We don’t have the room to hold them long term,” Coates said.
Huckabee said they would totally be working in compliance and County Attorney Bethany Espinosa explained there was confusion when the jail agreement was approved two courts ago.
Approval for all Justice of the Peace offices to use eFile through Tyler Technology was approved, which aids the JP offices with people being able to pay online for JP issues.
During the special called June 1 meeting, the county approved an interlocal agreement with the city of Stephenville to aid a shortage of county dispatchers.
The agreement would allow city of Stephenville dispatchers to come over to the county to work additional shifts, and a lump sum for that work will be billed to the county when the Joint Dispatch takes place this summer.
Huckabee questioned how this would be tracked for budgetary reasons.
Sign Up Genius is being used to cover the shifts and a verification through an email chain will be established to make sure the county is aware of the charges.
“I appreciate your time on this and ability to stay staffed on this,” Huckabee said.